Adam's Peak - Visiting the Gods

Every year, thousands of pilgrims and trippers make sure that Sri Lanka’s 3^rd highest mountain is vastly populated from the December Poya till the May Poya next year. This is officially the Sri Pada season here in Sri Lanka.

Adam’s Peak is a sacred mountain and a place of worship according to many religions and therefore due respect should be paid while doing the ascent or the descent. During the season and especially during Poya days, the trails are bound to be crowded with young and old alike. Tradition dictates that each traveler coming down the mountain should strengthen the traveler going up to reach the peak by singing encouraging chants in Sinhala. The traveler can accept these words of encouragement and wish likewise asking ‘Saman Deviyo’ to impart blessings on the traveler going down. Yes, this is more than just a hike to the top.

There are as much as 6 trails to reach the top. We were a team of 4 and we decided to use the Kuruwita- Erathna trail. We left quite early in the morning and took the bus from Fort to Kuruwita in Ratnapura. Once we reached Kuruwita, we had to take another bus to get to Erathna. Buses are frequent and many during the Sri Pada season. So no worries there. Kuruwita is the last town on the way up if you’re taking this trail. So stock up on provisions if needed from this point. Remember to take a raincoat at all times just to be safe.

Once we reached Erathna there was still a bit of road left to get to the trail head. A lorry that was going up to the trail head was kind enough to give us a ride. 

The trail is tough. Make no mistake. There is always the Hatton trail if you wish to take an easier route to the top. But if you do decide to take the Kuruwita trail, be prepared for some serious sweat. But what will work to your advantage in the season is that the trail is lit up by lamps within reasonable distances so you don’t exactly need a GPS tracker or a compass to get to the top. But I’m told that the lights are not in operation during off season.

The trail is not deserted during the season and there is always a party climbing with you or resting on the way. The climb itself gives a lot of perspective about human spirit and faith. Elderly women as old as

probably 70 years were taking the climb with us. Difficulty is not a part of the equation since the motivation for most people is to reach the temple at the top. Pregnant mothers, kids, parents carrying toddlers all make the climb. Its quite an experience to just observe people from different walks of life going towards the same end point.

Resting places are aplenty. The ‘Ambalama’ type resting places allow the tired traveler to sit down for a bit, have a rotty, a hot plain tea, regain your senses and re-commence the climb. There obviously isn’t a wide selection of food items given the difficulty that the Ambalam people obviously have in getting the provisions up from the town. There are trained porters who carry stuff from the bottom of the mountain and they seem to be in no visible difficulty at any given time with a sack of flour on their backs. Its just unbelievable at times.

We reached the final Ambalama at the top of the final phase of the climb by about 11pm. We wanted to see the sunrise or the famous ‘Ira Sevaya’ from the top of the mountain. So it was critical that we timed our climb perfectly to ensure that we see the sunrise but don’t stay on top for a long time. Its cold. Extremely cold. I’ve never been a fan of extremely low temperatures anyway. So we slept using whatever space we could find at the final Ambalama. In the season, the final Ambalama can resemble the Pettah bus station. This is also the point at which two other trails also meet the final phase. So the crowd is aplenty. Its nice to co-exist at this point since everyone is extremely tired and is looking a place to sit down and  have a bit of a rest. So be conscientious.

The final climb is relatively easier since there are proper paved steps with iron railings right till the top. It gets steep at times and if you have a fear of heights (like I do),it can get a bit dizzy. But nothing like facing your fears yes? J

It’s an un-explainably surreal feeling once you get to the top. Pilgrims and devotees stand in line to visit the famous shrine, pay their homage and settle down on the East side of the shrine to watch the sunrise. There is a massive gong on a corner of the temple. Tradition dictates that you ring the gong matching the number of times you’ve come to the summit. If this is your first time or in Sinhala, ‘A Kodukaraya’, you ring the bell once.

We were however a tad bit disappointed to not be able to see the sunrise. The weather was overcast and cloudy and therefore visibility was very low in the distance. So we made our way down from the top through the Hatton-Nallathannni trail which is well maintained and traveler friendly from top to bottom. The trail finishes in Maskeliya and from there we took a bus to the Hatton train station. From the station we took the train back to Colombo and put a satisfactory ending to our very first hike.

We used the trip report here from Lakdasun.Com for our reference and I’m sure you too will find it useful.

Photos of the trail can be found on my Flickr profile here. My travel buddy Prishan also has an album on Facebook on this link

(Pictures are by Prishan De Silva)

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